Addressing methods and apparatus for use in a communication system

Abstract

In a cellular communication network having a plurality of access points serving wireless terminals, methods and apparatus for facilitating handoff of a wireless terminal from a first access point to a second access point. In various embodiments, the process includes storing in a memory device at the wireless terminal a cell identifier, wherein the cell identifier includes a special character enabling the cell identifier to identify a plurality of access points to which the wireless terminal can be handed off; and the wireless terminal using the stored address information to determine access points to which a handoff may be implemented. One or more cell identifiers stored in the memory can be used as a neighbor list, which can be used to identify handoff possibilities or topographical adjacencies.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority from Provisional Application Ser. No. 61 / 107,283, which was filed on Oct. 21, 2008 and which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly, some embodiments relate to methods and apparatus for femtocell addressing.DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART[0003]Perhaps the genesis of mobile telephones can be traced back to their predecessors: two-way radios that were regularly used in taxicabs, police cruisers, and other like vehicles. These early radios were of limited use and flexibility, and typically only provided half-duplex communications. More flexibility was introduced with the transportable telephones, also known as bag phones, which were used as mobile two-way radios, but could also be patched into the telephone network and used as portable phones.[0004]The development of modern cellula...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012]Embodiments of the present invention are directed toward apparatus and methods for providing enhanced addressing of cells in a wireless communication system. In various embodiments, special characters such as wild cards and don't cares can be used in the addressing to enable identification of sets of locations with a single entry. Addressing techniques can allow hierarchical structures for topographical definition. Additionally, unique addressing can be used that shares the location and cell identifier fields in a standard cell structure to allow flexible allocation of address space among the two fields. A cell boundary or partition, or field length identifier can be determined based on anticipated allocation needs as among locations and cells within those locations. The location and cell identifiers can be assigned from opposite ends of the shared cell, allowing flexibility for growth between the two fields.

Problems solved by technology

These early radios were of limited use and flexibility, and typically only provided half-duplex communications.

However, as cell sizes shrink, such as in RAN or femtocell environments, and the number of possible neighbors grows, it becomes impractical to constantly churn the neighbor list even on a mobile-by-mobile basis to manage mobility.

These methods in essence artificially create very long neighbor lists so that the small cell topologies can be managed, potentially on a radio-link by radio-link basis but at the risk of increased operational overhead.

This methodology, however, is a very inefficient way of handling effectively a 2̂32 address space, and although having it human manageable is an advantage, it does not meet today's needs where base stations could number in the millions.

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